University at Albany, State University of New York
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Panameñas No Alineadas: Mujeres Gestoras Culturales y Artistas Visuales durante el Régimen Militar de Omar Torrijos Herrera 1968-1985
No full textThis dissertation explores the political activism and leadership of women cultural managers and visual artists in Panama City between 1970 and 1985. I pause to analyze instances in which Panamanian women managers and visual artists led cultural activities aimed at implementing cultural policies during the Omar Torrijos Herrera regime. These cultural policies were aimed at strengthening Panamanian nationalism in response to the political, economic, and military presence of the United States government in the Canal and the Zone. In this dissertation, I suggest that professional artists, women cultural managers, and visual artists were the principal architects of the proclamation of national sovereignty. In the generation of multiple cultural agendas, I demonstrate that the military regime did not exclusively conceive the cultural policies. In the conception and implementation of cultural policies in Panama, several actors were involved; at times, they work in harmony, and at others, they impose their individual motivations, political stances, and even biases regarding gender. In this dissertation, I argue that while the signing of new treaties between Panama and the United States that would return sovereignty to Panama over the Canal and the Zone was possible as a result of the diplomacy led by the Panamanian diplomats with a prolific career in diplomacy and in the legal field, The achievement of Panamanian sovereignty was also possible through the determination of women who held leadership positions in the military regime\u27s bureaucratic system, women capable of advancing their professional careers while ensuring the well-being of Panamanian families. They embraced the cause of sovereignty over the Canal and the Zone, seeing themselves not only as defenders of the territory but also as protectors of the future Panamanian citizens who would live in a territory free of U.S. presence. Women cultural managers such as Marcela Camargo, Reina Torres de Araúz and the women members of the Board of Directors of the Panamanian Institute of Art (Panarte), whom I called as, Non Aligned Panamanian Women (Panameñas No Alineadas)were central figures in the creation of spaces and government actions aimed at disseminating many cultural products and visual art not always aligned to the cultural policies promoted by the military regime to traditionally marginalized sectors who were secluded from these cultural spaces before the establishment of the National Institute of Culture. In this research, I demonstrate that, through their actions, the Non-Aligned Panamanians complicate this notion of the revolutionary mother woman perpetuated in the discursive and visual constructions of the military regime. The creativity of the women who are part of this research led them to develop a visual art that did not exclusively explore notions of gender or sovereignty. Instead, it proposed unconventional topics, such as monstrosity, science fiction, or body fragmentation. The cultural managers and visual artists who participated in implementing cultural policies did not always follow either the guidelines established by the military regime or a suffocating feminist agenda. Instead, they took advantage of the space granted by the military regime to advance their own professional goals, implementing cultural activities, including museum projects, and creating a vibrant community cultural agenda that expanded audiences and sought to bridge the gap between urban and rural Panamanians
Understanding Hepatitis C Risk and Harm Reduction Needs Among People Who Smoke Drugs: A Client-Centered Qualitative Inquiry
No full textThe spread of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) via non-injectable equipment is plausible, making people who smoke drugs (PWSD) at-risk for possible infection and transmission. While much research has been conducted into injection drug use (IDU), likely due to the rising opioid epidemic, limited studies focus on the risks PWSD face. Currently, state-funded syringe service programs (SSPs) provide harm reduction education and materials to combat these risks. Safer smoking initiatives have been created and are widely used by PWSD, and have access to SSPs. To gain better insight into the HCV and non-HCV-related risks and burdens PWSD face, a qualitative study was conducted. 15–30-minute interviews were conducted once participant consent was obtained. Questions regarding substance use history, risk of HCV with smoking supplies, and the utilization of safer smoking initiatives were asked. Interview transcripts were analyzed to identify themes and patterns. Few PWSD were found to have significant knowledge of the potential HCV risks they face. However, risk knowledge of sharing and/or using broken/worn-down smoking supplies was expressed by the majority of participants. The reasons why PWSD changed their drug modalities or first started using varied between participants. However, several sub-themes were identified, such as environmental contributors, cost, and accessibility to SSPs. Risk knowledge and resource accessibility were found to potentially influence drug use practices, subsequently affecting risk and well-being. Recommendations to further expand harm reduction education, SSP accessibility and funding, client incentives, and policy changes were made
Forgive Our Living and Our Dead : Colonial Warfare in the Philippines
No full textIn March of 1906, American troops massacred over 1,000 Filipino civilians on Bud Dajo mountain. American service members were commended for this incident. My research examines this massacre to ask why wars of insurgency are specifically subject to abuses of power, particularly during the American-Philippines War and the ensuing colonial warfare between 1898 and 1906 under the colonization of the US. My research will focus on the circumstances created to excuse US soldiers after atrocities were committed and the colonial attitudes of the time in addition to the brutal methods used by the American government in Philippines. American colonial administrators and soldiers dehumanized the Filipino population by devaluing their culture, religion, and existing political institutions. I conclude by showing how the American occupation of the Philippines set the model for future wars of insurgency like the Vietnam War
Virtual Oscillator Controlled Grid-Forming Inverters
No full textABSTRACT As power systems transition from fossil-fuel plants to renewable resources, synchronous generators (SGs) are increasingly replaced by converter-based interfaces with limited inertia and constrained voltage and frequency regulation. This shift introduces stability and performance challenges that can be mitigated with advanced control strategies such as grid-forming (GFM) controllers, which are able to establish voltage and frequency autonomously. In thiswork, among differentGFMcontrollers, dispatchable virtual oscillator control (dVOC) is adopted for its fast dynamics, accurate synchronization, and effective power-sharing among distributed energy resources. However, dVOC suffers from nonlinear parameter-design complexity, limited inertial response, coupled power loops, inadequate voltage regulation at point of common coupling (PCC), and no built-in current limiting or fault ride through capability. To overcome these limitations, this work proposes a data-driven dVOC tuning method that outperforms analytical designs in transient and steady state performance and remains robust under varying line impedances. For further stability analysis, a detailed system model is developed. To enhance inertial response, virtual inertia controller based on the swing equation is proposed which updates inverter power commands, improving frequency response under disturbances. An adaptive inertia controller further adjusts gains dynamically to reduce settling time and power exchange. A dynamic reactive power controller is proposed to decouple active/reactive controls and improve power control performance. To regulate the PCC voltage, finite-set model predictive control (FS-MPC) is integrated to dVOC to predict and regulate PCC voltage and output current. Leveraging the multi-objective cost function of FS-MPC enables current limiting under overloads or faults. To address the mismatched line impedances among parallel DERs connected to the AC bus, an MPC-dVOC controller with virtual impedance was designed to ensure accurate power control and balanced power-sharing. Furthermore, an adaptive MPC-dVOC framework is developed enabling seamless transitions between grid-tied and islanded modes and ensures proper operation. To enable fault-through capability, the proposed MPC-based approach is designed to limit fault current and supply reactive power support during grid disturbances in compliance with grid-code requirements. To validate the controller effectiveness, a laboratory prototype is built. The results confirm the voltage regulation accuracy and improved system dynamics. i
Teacher Retention Bright Spots: A Four Case Analysis
No full textThe teacher retention crisis has been extensively studied over the 21st century. Robust survey data from the National Center of Educational Statistics (NCES) has produced volumes on the quantitative characteristics of the teachers, students, and schools associated with low teacher retention (Ingersoll, 2001; Boyd et al., 2011; Ronfeldt, Loeb & Wyckoff, 2013). However, few studies have examined what is going right at high poverty schools which nonetheless maintain exceptionally high teacher retention. This dissertation utilizes a positive deviance lens to examine four schools; two typical schools that had normal teacher retention rates for New York State, and two outlier schools that experienced both high poverty and exceptionally high teacher retention.
This mixed methods study uses statistical analysis to identify positive outlier schools and semi-structured interviews to gather reflections from the principals and teachers who work in those high-retention schools. Similarly, interviews with principals and teachers at the two typical schools provided a normal context for comparison, contrasting the policies and experiences of teachers at the high-retention schools. All interviews were analyzed using Herzberg’s two-factor theory, parsing the different motivational factors and negative factors that may influence employment satisfaction.
Findings from those 23 interviews across four schools indicate teacher retention was higher when teachers reported that the administration protected their time, provided a sufficient working environment, and handled disruptive students. Teachers at the outlier schools described their principals as reliable and reported that they felt successful as teachers. Both outlier school principals used high-frequency, low-stakes check-ins to chat with most of their teachers on a nearly daily basis. The interviews reveal that these short interactions provided multiple opportunities for principals to respond to modest requests from teachers, and that principals built trust when they quickly followed-through on those requests. This research demonstrates the viability of positive deviance for studying teacher retention and offers actionable practice for school leaders hoping to improve teacher retention at their schools
Untangling Memories of Violence: The Khipu in El rincón de los muertos (Alfredo Pita)
Get PDFThis research proposes a structural reading of El rincón de los muertos to decode and trace echoes to the khipu which are embedded throughout the novel. Contrary to a graphic writing system, the Incan empire’s khipu (khipu) was a mnemotechnic system—a three-dimensional communicative device, an archive of memory that recorded information using different colored strings, and a system of knots. Our concept of mnemonics is different than that of the indigenous communities who relied on oral tradition and specifically for khipu a khipukamayuq (reader of khipu), in a narrative and discursive manner, to reconstruct the message the khipu contained. This research explores why these trans-medial references are made and precisely what aspects of a khipu are ‘translatable’ via a written text. Pita’s novel, however, is a metaphoric ‘translation’ of this recording device, provided that an exact translation is impossible based on the textual limitations of a novel. The focus of my essay will be to demonstrate how certain elements of the khipu are translatable in the novel but in a metaphoric sense. El rincón de los muertos’ polyphonic narrative, explicit references to the khipu, and the novel’s structural components are a few of the several aspects that make a metaphoric comparison to a khipu plausible. Vicente, this literary work’s protagonist, figuratively attempts to piece together, or rather, untangle the frayed strands of the khipu — the lost, forgotten, and neglected narrative of the origins of violence in the Andes
Antibody-Induced Multicellular Behaviors of Salmonella Typhimurium
Get PDFSalmonella enterica is a globally distributed bacterial pathogen that is commonly acquired through consumption of contaminated food and water. The enterica subspecies includes over 1500 unique subvariants, or serovars, that are classified by antigen presentation. Due to its global environmental prevalence, broad host range, and increasing pathogenicity, serovar Typhimurium is of particular concern for human and animal health, as well as food safety. Once in the gastrointestinal tract, Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) exploits host immune mechanisms, implements an arsenal of virulence factors, and outcompetes the microbiota to invade the intestinal epithelium. While STm infections are generally self-limiting and relatively mild, emerging multidrug-resistant and hyper-invasive isolates of STm cause more severe and potentially systemic infections, as well as limit the efficacy of current treatment options.
Secretory IgA (SIgA) antibodies represent the first line of defense at mucosal surfaces to protect against STm and thus represent a potential alternative to antibiotics. By virtue of its dimeric structure and high avidity, SIgA mediates a key effector function known as immune exclusion, a process in which invading bacteria are aggregated via antibody cross-linking, encased in mucus, and then cleared from the intestinal tract via peristalsis. While immune exclusion is essential for protection in vivo, the underlying mechanism of IgA-mediated agglutination, and the extent of active bacterial contribution in this process, remains unknown.
The anti-lipopolysaccharide (LPS) monoclonal IgA Sal4 was generated from a mouse hybridoma in the early 1990s and demonstrates the capability to protect mice against STm infection through multiple routes of administration. In addition, previous studies have shown that Sal4 triggers motility arrest, inhibition of type 3 secretion, exopolysaccharide production, and agglutination of STm in vitro. Sal4 targets the O5 antigen component of LPS expressed on the surface of STm, and thus the impacts of Sal4 are dependent on expression of this epitope, which is directly and exclusively generated by the transacetylase encoded by the gene oafA. The results from these in vitro characterization studies of Sal4 collectively indicate that STm senses and adapts its behavior in response to Sal4 binding. From this, I hypothesized that Sal4 IgA acts as an environmental stress signal that drives STm to transition from a planktonic to sessile state, which leads to motility arrest, agglutination, and ultimately, biofilm formation.
In Chapter 3, I developed a method known as the snow globe assay to visualize and quantify Sal4-mediated agglutination of STm. Bacterial aggregation was shown to occur in a time-, dose-, and O5-antigen expression-dependent manner in the snow globe assay, thus validating results from previous studies. Non-motile strains of STm did not agglutinate in homogenous culture with Sal4 treatment, however, aggregation was induced with a nucleating factor, such as agitation or the presence of motile cells, that could generate collisions and consequently, the formation of aggregates. Alternatively, selected cyclic-di-GMP metabolizing enzymes previously implicated in motility arrest and EPS production did not appear to play a significant role in the process of Sal4-mediated agglutination in the snow globe assay. This indicates that the cellular collisions caused by motility drive agglutination of STm in the presence of Sal4 IgA and establishes the snow globe assay as an approachable and effective technique for measuring antibody-induced aggregation of STm in vitro.
In Chapter 4, I confirmed that a mutant strain of STm lacking oafA expression can outcompete WT over the course of four treatments with Sal4 IgA, even when outnumbered at a ratio of 1:6000. With this modified version of the snow globe assay, I performed a genome-wide CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) screen to identify genes that actively promote bacterial agglutination in response to repeated exposure to Sal4 IgA. A previously generated strain of STm 14028s containing a library of 36,651 plasmid-based spacers was treated twice with Sal4 IgA and next-generation sequencing was performed to determine the frequency of each spacer within the subpopulation present at the ALI. From this, I developed a custom analysis process to (1) exclude spacers below the cutoff for minimum read frequency, (2) calculate fold enrichment of spacers detected at the ALI between treatment groups, (3) align spacers to their target gene, and (4) identify genes that were targeted by more than one unique spacer. Ten percent of the de-enriched spacer list contained spacers that targeted genes linked to flagellar biosynthesis and complex assembly. Alternatively, oafA and fimW each had three unique spacers appear on the enriched list, indicating that silenced expression of these genes leads to enrichment of STm at the ALI. The gene product of fimW is a negative regulator of Type I Fimbriae (T1F) expression, and this function was confirmed with a quantitative mannose-sensitive yeast agglutination assay. The non-agglutinating phenotype of a fimW mutant was successfully complemented in trans, and further characterization revealed that this strain does not escape Sal4-mediated motility arrest or inhibition of epithelial cell invasion. However, the fimW mutant demonstrated enhanced biofilm formation relative to WT STm upon Sal4 treatment, indicating that overexpression of T1F can prime STm for the planktonic-to-sessile transition induced by Sal4.
This study presents the snow globe assay as a standardized, approachable, and adaptable technique to quantify antibody-mediated bacterial agglutination. Furthermore, the results from this dissertation provide compelling evidence that the anti-LPS monoclonal IgA Sal4 acts as an environmental stressor of STm. I propose a model where Sal4 binding induces a stress response in STm that involves motility arrest, agglutination, and biofilm formation occurring sequentially. Future studies are necessary to elucidate the molecular steps that facilitate Sal4-induced biofilm formation of STm and the underlying mechanisms of Sal4-mediated protection against STm
Resources to Study the Isoforms of the p53 Family of Transcription Factors
Get PDFThe p53 family of transcription factors regulates diverse gene regulatory networks such as those involved in DNA damage repair, epidermal commitment, and neuronal development. As a result, dysfunction in these pathways lead to numerous human health conditions, including multiple types of cancer and craniofacial developmental disorders. Each family member regulates a distinct gene network leading to varied cellular and organismal phenotypes, but all are capable of regulating programmed cell death, likely due to considerable similarity between protein structure and binding sites in DNA. Analysis of these shared and distinct functions is complicated by each p53 family member gene (TP53, TP63, and TP73) generating multiple N- and C-terminal isoforms with potential differences in activity. Here, we develop a novel p53 family expression library for comprehensively and uniquely interrogating their shared and distinct biological activities. The first collection allows for in vitro expression and transient expression of all 35 uniquely codon-shifted isoforms in a range of mammalian models. We used this library to demonstrate its utility in distinguishing isoforms based on their unique sequences enabling their unequivocal identification in complex biological settings. We also showcase the advantage of utilizing this collection for knockdown – rescue style experiments that are challenging due to the sequence homology present within this family. The second collection allows for stable integration and inducible expression of all 35 isoforms coupled with unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) suitable for use in pooled screens. We used this library to perform pooled drop-out screens to compare anti-proliferative activity between isoforms of this transcription factor family. We identified both known and novel activities that would have been difficult with conventional loss-of-function (LOF) approaches. This newly constructed tool provides the means to answer previously intractable questions about the p53 family and has the potential to significantly impact evolutionary biology, developmental biology, and cancer biology
A Theoretical and Empirical Adaptation of Signaling Theory for Digital Communication: Examining Organizational Brand Identity and Credibility
Get PDFThis dissertation adapts signaling theory for digital communication and tests its relevance in strategic communication, specifically concerning unobservable organizational traits like brand identity values. Signaling theory explains how parties with unequal information (senders/signalers and receivers) use signals to bridge knowledge gaps and influence decision-making. While rooted in biology and economics, its application in computer-mediated communication (CMC) remains limited. This research addresses this gap through two primary aims. Aim 1 presents the first comprehensive theoretical adaptation of signaling theory for digital communication, consolidating fragmented research across multiple disciplines. Aim 2 investigates the theory\u27s relevance in strategic communication related to unobservable brand identity values. A two-phase factorial experimental design was implemented to analyze the effect of key features of signaling theory, including information asymmetry, signaler types (high vs. low resource organizations), signal fit, signal effectiveness, signal observability, and signal consistency on dimensions of credibility. Empirical results indicate a significant positive relationship between signal fit and signal effectiveness, and a decrease in information asymmetry after exposure to social media posts. However, no statistical support was found for signal observability or signal consistency impacting credibility perceptions for either signaler type. The discussion highlights trends, limitations, and the need to explore signaling theory further in future CMC research, particularly concerning brand identity and strategic communication in online environments. This dissertation serves as a valuable resource for future scholarship by explicating the core tenets of signaling theory for the digital age
Intention-Setting among Recreational Psychedelic Users: Associated Acute Effects and Changes in Well-Being
Get PDFPsychedelic intentions play an important role in shaping acute psychedelic experiences and influencing long-term outcomes. Limited existing literature suggests that different types of intentions are linked to acute experiences and outcomes in varying ways. However, data on the types of intentions set by recreational users remain scarce, and their effects lack clarity. This study investigates intention-setting practices among recreational psychedelic users, aiming to establish a taxonomy of intentions in naturalistic use contexts and clarify user perspectives on the impact of intention-setting. We also examine how domain-specific intentions correlate with acute psychedelic effects and changes in well-being. Finally, we test a model for effective intentionsetting to achieve beneficial outcomes. The results show that the most common types of intentions focus on self-discovery and personal growth, as well as healing and mental health. Participants often reported that intention-setting provided direction and cognitive focus as well as positive emotional anchoring. Intentions related to mental health, self-expansion, and physical health and habits were positively linked with mystical experiences, emotional breakthroughs, challenging experiences, improvements in well-being, and reductions in dysfunctional attitudes. Recreational intentions, however, did not significantly correlate with emotional breakthroughs, challenging experiences, or reductions in dysfunctional attitudes, and were negatively linked to improvements in well-being. Finally, intentions that were specific, relevant, flexible, and integrated after the psychedelic experience predicted improvements in well-being